Jefferson City

About Jefferson City

Jefferson City, officially City of Jefferson and informally Jeff City, is the capital of the U.S. state of Missouri. It had a population of 43,228 at the 2020 United States census, ranking as the 16th most populous city in the state, but the 9th least populous U.S. state capital. It is also the county seat of Cole County and the principal city of the Jefferson City Metropolitan Statistical Area, the second-most-populous metropolitan area in Mid-Missouri and the fifth-most populous in the state. It forms part of the nine-county Columbia–Jefferson City–Moberly combined statistical area, which has 415,747 residents. Most of the city is located within Cole County, with a small northern section extending into adjacent Callaway County.

Jefferson City is named for Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), the third President of the United States, 1801–1809, and earlier major author of the Declaration of Independence of the United States on July 4, 1776. He also served several diplomatic posts overseas in Europe and was the first U.S. Secretary of State (1790–1793) in the first President's Cabinet of George Washington, and subsequently the second Vice President (1797–1801) under second chief executive John Adams.

Jefferson City is located on the northern edge of the Ozark Plateau on the southern side of the Missouri River in a region known as Mid-Missouri, that is roughly mid-way between the state's two large urban areas of Kansas City to the west and St. Louis in the east (along the west bank of the Mississippi River). It is 29 miles (47 km) south of Columbia, Missouri, and sits at the western edge of the Missouri Rhineland, one of the major wine-producing regions of the Midwest. The city is dominated by the monumental domed Missouri State Capitol, which rises from a bluff overlooking the nearby Missouri River to the north. Lewis and Clark with their Corps of Discovery passed the bluff here on their historic expedition upriver in 1804, eventually journeying westward to the Pacific Northwest region and the Pacific Ocean, before Europeans or Americans established any settlement there.

Many of Jefferson City's primary employers are in service and manufacturing industries like Hitachi. Jefferson City is also home to Lincoln University, a public historically black and federal land-grant university founded the year after the American Civil War in 1866, by the Union Army black veterans of the First Missouri Regiment of Colored Infantry & 62nd Regiment of U.S. Colored Troops with support from the Second Missouri Regiment of Colored Infantry / 65th Regiment of U.S. Colored Troops.

Text: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Jefferson City weather: 7-day forecast

Source: National Weather Service (NOAA).

Nearest webcams to Jefferson City

There are no webcams in Jefferson City itself. These are the closest, 35 miles away or more.

Webcams: Windy.com

Living in Jefferson City

Median household income

$66,371

Median home value

$218,700

Median rent

$802/mo

Median age

38.9

Map of Jefferson City

Tap any street on the map to see it in Street View below. Map: © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Jefferson City Street View

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Jefferson City, MO population

Jefferson City had 43,228 residents in the 2020 Census.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Decennial Census.

Jefferson City at a glance

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau (Gazetteer, ZCTA), USGS GNIS, Wikidata.

Towns near Jefferson City

• Wardsville5.2 mi S
• Holts Summit6.5 mi NE
• Taos6.5 mi SE
• St. Martins8.8 mi W
• Lohman10.4 mi W
• New Bloomfield11.3 mi NE
• Hartsburg11.4 mi NW
• Tebbetts12.3 mi E
• Westphalia12.9 mi SE
• Centertown13.1 mi W
• St. Thomas14.0 mi S
• Russellville14.8 mi W

Straight-line distance between town centers.

Frequently asked questions about Jefferson City